I can't be the only one who found IT to be insufferably long, am I? If I hadnt been in prison and filling my mom in every night on the last 100 pages(stephen king family) I would have put it down 100 pages in.

I read IT while I was in Prison and honestly I barely made it through. The only reason is my family has kind of a legacy of reading Stephen King going back to my grandmother, but my mother attempted 3 times and couldn't make it through. Its a story ive heard quite a few times over my life. Anyway, I spent a lot of time reading and would call her every night and update her on the last 100 pages from today. She was both very interested in how the book went and felt deeply vindicated at how much I complained about it every call. IT is a fucking SLOG. Every fucking characters perspective on a single event doesn't need to be written, its cocaine + typewriter to its absolute extreme. I know thats an absolutely polar take but honestly its fucking insane anyone let King get away with something this massive(1100+ pages!!!!) thats also 65% SOLID filler. And size isnt a problem, remember, I was in prison(ba-dum-tss) and I had just crushed the extended version of The Stand and loved every second of it.

Reading it was a miserable experience and I found it really quite uninteresting. When you compare it to the original movies, there is absolutely gold in them hills, but its sparse and you really work for it. Some of the stuff with the black kid was really cool, I loved how the history of IT was explored more, and imagining IT in a bootlegger massacre popping off rounds in the shadows is absolutely amazing. I appreciated it as someone who grew up with the original movies and wanted to compare them and come out appreciating both. And I do, honestly some of it was quite good. The extra murders, and especially the police stuff in the beginning, was really cool too. A police show set in Derry trying to figure out what the hell is going on would be really cool. Maybe pull a Split where its a complete fucking surprise and at the end its revealed its in Derry and IT has been doing it, but to the police the murders remain essentially unsolved and get brushed under the rug.

IDK IT is the only book I've ever read where you could cut 600 pages and it would be a better read. I respect the fuck out of it as a work of writing but dear god it needed maybe 2 more drafts and some deep cuts. Knock it down to 750 pages and you have something incredible.